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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Manaphy & Friends

Hello everyone!

You know what day today is? The release date of Starcaft
2: Heart of the Swarm! Nonetheless, I'll be still writing to my blog regularly,
even though I believe I have never been busier in my life than at the moment.

States started last weekend and even though some international Regionals have
been played, we don’t really have any clear results from the tournaments.
Darkrai EX has been dominating somewhere and surprisingly Klinklang has been
doing very well for example in Finland. Garbodor/Landorus EX is still on the
run and been doing extremely well. However, since the new set is released,
there is also potential for completely new decks! And today I’ll take a look at
not probably the most competitive deck variant there is, but very interesting
and fun deck – Manaphy & Friends.

I’ll introduce two different variants of the deck and at the moment, I’m
thinking of playing one of these variants in my upcoming Regionals. They are
fun, consistent and can win any deck in the format – what else you need from a
deck in this format? With a little tweaking I can see these decks to
exceptionally especially in a very diverse format like the current format we
are now playing.

This deck is pretty simple. Just get Manaphy to the active spot and start
energy accelerating energy to your Keldeo EXs and start attacking by T3. With
the help of Rush Ins you can keep your opponent from getting the cheapest KOs
and with the help of Hypnotoxic Lasers you are forcing them to retreat all the
time unless they want to give you free prizes.

Manaphy – Fliptini

Manahpy is the starter of this deck and with the help of Victini, it can be
a huge energy accelerator already in the early turns. If everything goes as
planned and you get enough Water energy to discard pile in T1, you usually get
2 energy to your Keldeo EX in the first turn. After that you are already ready
to start hitting with Keldeo EX or just continue set upping with Manaphy until
Manaphy is KOed and its Ability is activated. Fliptini is a must here and
without it, this deck wouldn’t really even be a fun deck, just a crappy flippy
deck.

Keldeo EX

Keldeo EX is the main attacker of this deck, but there isn’t that much else
to it. You try to get it to Rush in, in T2 and you don’t usually attach more
than 3 energy to it, because everything in the format 2HKOed by 3 energy Keldeo
EX and as you can’t energy accelerate after set upping, you can’t afford losing
all the energy at once or else you lose the game.

Mewtwo EX

Mewtwo EX is of course the BCIF, but it also plays a huge role against
decks that would usually just run through this deck. Good example of this kind
of deck would be Blastoise/Keldeo EX, which can just load 7 energy to Keldeo EX
and OHKO everything. If it wasn’t for the Mewtwo EX, you would autoloss to
those and to Eelektrik decks that can energy accelerate their Mewtwo EXs, but
as you have a Mewtwo EX of your own, your opponent can’t attach too many energy
to his/her Pokémon at once.

Professor Juniper – N - Bianca - Random Receiver

Nothing surprising here. You just want to discard a lot of energy in the
early turns and that’s why I prefer Random Receiver over Skyla. Your optimal
opening hand has a Juniper and Water energy in it.

Ultra Ball - Computer Search

Discarding, discarding and more discarding. These cards are not only highly
important, because they can discard cards, but also, because they add consistency
in your early turns and without them, you would be screwed against many decks,
because you wouldn’t even be fast enough to beat a Darkrai EX deck.

Pokémon Catcher - Escape Rope

You don’t hit hard, so you must get easy prizes as fast as possible.
Catcher and Escape Rope help you with that and of course Escape Rope helps you
to Switch your Pokémon in situation where Rush-In is locked by for example Garbodor.

Hypnotoxic Laser - Virbank City Gym

You don’t hit a lot, so you need extra firepower. And that’s what exactly
these cards do for you. You don’t really have to worry about your opponent’s
Lasers as you have Rush-in all the time, but your opponent will be in trouble
when you just Poison them every turn and if they are playing clunky decks like
Landorus EX (which is by the way weak to Keldeo EX as well).

Super Rod

Sometimes you need the 3rd Mewtwo EX or more Water energy and
Super Rod is highly essential for that. One other very good option here is Tool
Scrapper as well, if you feel like 2 Mewtwo EXs is enough.

Energy Retrieval - Energy Switch

Your every single attacker attacks the more they have energy attached to
them, so it’s only natural for you to have lots of Trainers that help you to
manipulate the energy on your Pokémon. If it wasn’t for Computer Search being
broken, the deck would run Scramble Switch as well, but at the moment, I feel
like Computer Search is the better play here, because you need to get T2 Keldeo
EX consistently.
Energy

This deck wants to have as
much energy as possible. Sometimes the 13 Water energy seems that too few, but
in the end, you need to keep the deck consistent, so you can’t have 20 energy
in your deck even if you wanted to. DCEs are just too good for Mewtwo EX and
you can’t cut from then unless you are running a different variant of this deck…

This deck is just pure speed, speed and speed. You just try to run
through your opponent and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

What’s different

Supporters

You NEED the cards to discard
pile as soon as possible. That’s why I have maxed out the chances to get a
Juniper in T1. Also, worth noting are the Water energy amounts of this deck –
16! That’s a lot. In every single opening hand you often have at least 2 Water
Energy.

Lunatone – Ether

Here’s the thing, which makes the whole deck work- Lunatone is so good,
because it can arrange the top2 cards of your deck and you don’t have to worry
about its huge retreat cost, because you have Rush-In. With the help of
Lunatone and high Water energy count, you are almost certain to hit 3 out of 4
Ethers to Water Energy. And when you can keep energy accelerating even in the
mid and late game, your opponent will have tough time dealing with your speed.

Also, worth noting is that the deck doesn’t run DCEs anymore, because all the
focus is on the Ether and Water Energy. This also changes the focus more towards
Keldeo EX than Mewtwo EX and that’s why the deck also only plays 1 Mewtwo EX.
You only need it when in a pinch.

Revive

Revive is mostly used on Lunatone, if your opponent is wise enough to KO
it, but of course it can be used for Mewtwo EX or Keldeo EX as well when
needed. Super Rod is another option, but at the moment, I’ve found Revive
better in this variant.

Level Ball

You can get Lunatone, Manaphy AND Victini with Level Ball. It’s too good to
be left out from this deck.

Speed = inconsistency?

It’s always interesting to discuss if speed decks are more inconsistent than
the decks that doesn’t rely fully on speed. Simply put, speed decks ARE more
inconsistent than set upping decks. The reason for this is that speed decks’
“set-up” has to happen in 1-2 turns. If you miss this window of the early
turns, you lose the game. This is highlighted in the current format where
all the decks are extremely fast. Even a stage2 deck like Blastoise/Keldeo EX
can get Keldeo EX hitting a lot in the T2. This increases the importance of
consistency for the decks that rely solely on speed.

And the consistency problem is this deck’s biggest issue. Is it really worth
not to play Blastoise and play Manaphy instead for the early game energy
attachments? I dare to say that – no it isn’t. And in the end, that’s not what
this deck is even about. I see this deck in the tier2 with decks like
Hydreigon/Darkrai EX, Plasma Klinklang etc. It has some very good match-ups
(like Garbodor based decks), because it doesn’t rely on Abilities like most
decks in the current format, but sometimes these variants are just purely
overpowered by the tier1 decks. Tier1 decks are from time to time even faster
than this deck and whenever they set up, their firepower and mid-game
consistency is on a whole another level.

Conclusion

Even
though this deck isn’t maybe the most competitive it surely is lots of fun to
play and in the end, it can beat the top tier decks with its consistency (and
typing). I could boldly say that the probably most dominant deck of the moment
Landorus EX/Garbodor is indeed a good match-up for this deck and that’s pretty
cool even if I say so myself.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the article and I’m so sorry by the lateness of
these articles, because I’ve had a super busy last week (literally worked my
butt off). I also wrote a UG article, which will be released this Thursday and
TODAY the Starcraft2: Heart of the Swarm was released, so I’ll be playing it a
lot the past few weeks. I’ll try to come up with States analysis this week and
I’ll also be attending our Regionals this weekend, so I’m pretty pumped up. Can
I get my first tournament win of the season or will I bomb once again? It
remains to been seen…

17 comments:

I think that running a snorlax might be a good option for the fact if he is active your opponent is foced to use a switch or eat the poison damage. Also have you thought about dowsing machine instead of computer search? same discard cost but can get that 5th laser or 5th catcher. It would help greatly if you run into a variant where EX pokemon cannot do damage.

I'm not sure that fliptini is as benefitial in this deck as you make out. Without fliptini, Manaphy will average 1.5 energies per attack and will miss out on attaching any energy 1 in 8 times. With fliptini this average only goes up to averaging either 1.6875 or 1.875 depending on the reflip strategy you use.Yes this is a welcome improvement, but I'm not sure a 1 third of an energy attachment is the difference between a fun and crappy flippy deck, particularly when it means having a weak pokemon on your bench that gives your opponent a prize without activating Manaphy's ability.

I also think a BW-Bouffalant (with the Revenge-attack) would be a good tech for this deck, especially with Manaphy´s Ability and because it makes the match-up against Sigiliph a lot easier.And with Catcher, Virbank and Laser you can hit 120 to a PS Klingklang and than just one more laser or if it retreats or a switch/escape rope is played, just one catcher and laser and Klingklang has gone. And if your opponent doesn´t get another PS Klingklang into play, you´ve good chances to win.But anyways, great article and very interesting.

SO many NooBs, "How great Ideia" so my balls is a great ideia no? Why I will kill a manaphy? carcher other shit.... stupid, the hater is you mother beacuase she hates you because you don´t know how to use a stupid deck with 60 cards and you need to suck the balls of this guy? Give me a break ;)

Whoa, the comments are wilder than ever! At least they are entertaining! As I said in the article, I really wouldn't recommend anyone aiming for a tournament victory to play this deck, but I think it's a fun and competitive concept for people who don't take the game that seriously.

Also, when it comes to Klinklang, you can always tech another Victini here and 1-2 Fire energy + Energy Search. Klinklang isn't a problem against ANY deck as long as you play a tech against it. This applies to every deck.

If I were to write only about competitive decks, I would run out of articles in 4 weeks!

horrible and dumb idea of a Bad deck. (that by the way already seen some noobs try when plasma came out)

"yeah for this deck to work i need in turn 1 manaphy active, benched keldeo, 1 energy for active manaphy, discard 2 water energies, have juniper or ultraball in hand for discarding, flip a lot of heads, bench 1 victini... and all this with 13 water energies because i gotta keep it consistent"

Esa put this shit just beacuse you don´t have nothing more is very cool! You said this before here "Anyways, ECC will be in just 5 days, so I’m very excited! Maybe I’ll get to the top cut for the first time thisseason, lol." Your top cut was from the last Position congrats ahahahah and noobs If you guys want do the same copy paste this deck like a great 2 World Champion Builder did xD

I like this deck idea as a fun deck to use at league. I currently run Hammertime and Landorus EX/Mewtwo EX/Tornadus EX as my big guns. All these haters need to chill out. Pooka does the same thing at the TopCut on bad deck monday, decks to play just for the fun of it. I challenge you to make a 'rogue' deck that doesn't fall all over itself and is competitive (ie can win at least 50% of the time).